With an area covering some 2,500m 2over two floors, the building houses more than 2.5 million individual records dating back to a 1508 Admiralty Sailing Direction and a 1686 survey by a Capt Collins. Material of particular interest to historians and researchers alike also includes atlases and works by Capt Cook, Flinders' chart first using the name 'Australia', Bligh's annotations on Cook's published voyages and Shackleton's Antarctic routes and letters.

Other archive contents range from the most recent digital bathymetric surveys and foreign government charts, port information, aids to navigation and environmental data, to ships' remarks books as well as miscellaneous papers and books from the ages of exploration.

The contents, composition of which extends from animal hides and 23ft long parchment, to e-files and DVD, will continue to grow by an estimated 40,000 items a year.

The temperature and humidity-controlled building itself, which is also open to the public, includes offices for archive staff and a conservation laboratory in addition to research and reprographic rooms.

At the conclusion of the opening ceremony, Dr Williams presented Prince Andrew with a framed chart of the Inner and Outer Hebrides.